TESG

This article examines how corporate ESG performance affects bank lending decisions in Taiwan. Using TEJ’s TESG Ratings, the study finds that companies with stronger ESG performance generally receive more favorable lending conditions, including lower loan spreads, larger loan amounts, longer maturities, and a lower likelihood of collateral requirements. The findings also highlight the importance of balancing ESG initiatives with financial performance, as excessively high or low ESG performance may lead to less favorable lending terms.

Taiwan Economic Journal (TEJ) released the latest TESG Ratings results on May 4, 2026. This round of TESG ratings covers a total of 2,559 companies, with 41 newly added samples. Looking at the rating structure over the past five periods, the proportion of leading companies, rated A+ and A, has shown a steady and modest upward trend. Meanwhile, the share of companies rated C- has also increased over the past two periods, rising from 8.9% in the first half of 2025 to 11% in the second half of 2025, and further to 11.8% in the first half of 2026, as shown in Figure 1.

In 2025, Taiwanese companies are officially entering the era of comprehensive sustainability disclosure. Taiwan Economic Journal (TEJ) released the latest TESG Ratings November 3, revealing significant changes in the completeness, accuracy, and alignment with international standards of corporate disclosures. With the adoption of the new GRI Standards, biodiversity-related issues, and SASB industry-specific indicators, corporate sustainability disclosure is no longer merely about “responding to disclosure requirements,” but has become a key indicator of competitiveness.

On November 1, Taiwan Economic Journal (TEJ) released the latest TESG Rating for 2,462 companies. 498 companies were upgraded, 464 were downgraded, and 76 were changed by more than 2 levels, with 8 changing by more than 3 levels. 

2024 International Conference of Taiwan Finance Association (TFA) is held at National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) on June 7 and 8. The conference theme this year is “Reflection on FinTech Innovation: Opportunities and Risks”, where TEJ is invited to lecture on "ESG Index – Strategy Construction and Backtesting”.

On June 21, TEJ (Taiwan Economic Journal) held a seminar titled "Sustainable Finance from Dual Perspectives: Climate and Nature". The seminar focused on sharing practical experiences in “Investing and Financing Carbon Reduction Management – TCFD” and "Coexistence with Nature – TNFD”, providing insights into frameworks and practical experiences.

TEJ released its latest TESG rating results on May 2nd 2024. To align with the new regulations, five indicators related to ''Enhancing ESG Disclosure'' were added, where the importance of information security still continues. Up to now, more than 20% of listed and OTC companies have established CISO (Chief Information Security Officer), indicating the emphasis companies put on Information Security and Transparency. 

"TESG Sustainability Dataset" encompasses over 20 publicly available ESG information sources, integrating and including them according to the international SASB sustainability accounting standards framework. This provides users with the most timely and convenient ESG database for inquiries.

Threads, the so-called "Twitter killer," Threads, has faced accusations from Twitter's lawyers of stealing IP and trade secrets! Why trade secret matters in companies?

Today we will use the “TESG Event Radar” data to fulfill topic modeling, which can help us easily and quickly understand the ESG trends or topics of open data of the government, shareholders meeting report, and ESG report.